Sunday, March 22, 2015

Check out #MuseumWeek on Twitter

This week, world of museums, quite literally, will be all atwitter about, well, museums! @MuseumWeek is a week-long global initiative involving more than 1800 museums, curators and enthusiasts. The e-vent takes place on Twitter, with a daily theme.

I only stumbled on the initiative today, and it is already live in New Zealand. The cool thing about the online world is that you don't have to stick to your own timezone, so if you're keen, you can timetravel and start right now!

The week kicks of Monday by museums far and wide giving you a behind-the-scenes look into their worlds. Who knows what secrets and surprises will be revealed? Regardless, expect a treasure trove of new-to-you museums to discover. Follow #secretsMW on Monday.

On Tuesday, you are invited to share our own memories of museum visits, and your souvenirs from museums (yes, take a picture of your MOMA mug!). Should make for an interesting and engaging day of museum encounter stories! Follow #souvenirsMW on Tuesday.

Wednesday is dedicated to the architecture of museums: the buildings, the gardens and surrounding areas. You'll have an opportunity to explore the history and heritage of museums world-wide. Get ready to say wow a lot. Follow #architectureMW on Wednesday.

Thursday is another day for sharing. Not sure I totally understand how this one will work, but the official message is, "Now it’s your turn to create and share for posterity! Art, science, history and ethnography are all around us. To your smartphones!" Follow #inspirationMW on Thursday.

Friday is dedicated to families. This theme turns to pre-weekend planning for family trips to your local museum. Those responsible for school trips will also get lots of ideas from the museum community. Follow #familyMW on Friday.

The weekend kicks off Saturday with an invitation to share with your favourites. The organizers are suggesting favourites works, conferences, locations, and so on - in 140-character messages, videos, photos or Vines. Sounds like a nice wide-open book! Follow #favMW on Saturday.

The weekend wraps up Sunday with an invitation to get creative and share poses, memes or selfies. Given all the recent controversy about museums banning selfie-sticks (which I happen to agree with), it should be a diverse mix of images and discussion. Maybe I'll post a picture of me outside a museum... Follow #poseMW on Sunday.

I hope this inspires you to check out Museum Week, and to have fun with it.

I'm not sure how I'll participate, but I am loosely planning to follow the hashtags, and possibly post a few things, especially on the days that appear to given over to sharing: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.